Nielsen Full day training course offered at Usability Week New York City
Information Architecture: Day 1 (structure)
Organize and structure information to improve findability and discoverability
The Information Architecture (IA), or organization, of a website or application is critical, because it determines whether or not users are successful in finding desired information and completing tasks. This course introduces the core components of a good IA, as well as essential IA design methods and strategies.
Benefits
- Be able to explain why information architecture (IA) is important for your website or application, and how a good IA can save your company time and money during and after development
- Learn the essential logic and concepts you need to build a useful, usable, and extensible information architecture
- Learn practical methods for designing, documenting, and evaluating your IA
Topics Covered
- ROI of information architecture
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Five components of information architecture
- Structure: Hierarchy, web, and linear
- Organization schemes: Topic, task, format, audience, alphabet, time, geographical, attributes, tags, and popularity
- Labels
- Search
- Logic: Taxonomy and metadata
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Documenting information architecture
- Content inventories
- Site maps
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Evaluating information architecture
- Identifying issues and potential solutions
- Measuring baseline performance
- Testing structure, schemes, and labels
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Designing information architecture
- Mental models
- Domain modeling and task flow sketching
- Card sorting
- Iterative testing
Format
This course is an interactive lecture. A series of in-depth exercises let you apply and practice new principles and techniques, while staying grounded in the research that supports them.
In groups, you will analyze a website’s information architecture by considering the site’s target audiences and top tasks, evaluating the organization scheme and existing structure, and documenting a new structure for the site.
The course also includes:
- Findings from our own usability studies, including eyetracking
- Videos from user testing showing people's behavior in response to a design
- Screenshots of designs that work and don’t work
- Opportunities to ask questions and get answers
Companion Course
Information Architecture: Day 2 (navigation) is a companion course to Information Architecture: Day 1 (structure). Each course can be taken independently. Information Architecture: Day 2 (navigation) covers:
- Why some navigation designs work and others don’t
- Navigation evaluation checklist
- Framework to design your navigation
Instructor
Garrett Goldfield
Garrett Goldfield is a User Experience Specialist at Nielsen Norman Group with 20 years of practical experience. At Nielsen Norman Group, Goldfield has consulted for clients in a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, automotive, health care, financial, media, telecommunications, education, art and non-profits, as well as highly specialized B2B sites. Read more about Garrett
Garrett Goldfield is a User Experience Specialist at Nielsen Norman Group with 20 years of practical experience. At Nielsen Norman Group, Goldfield has consulted for clients in a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, automotive, health care, financial, media, telecommunications, education, art and non-profits, as well as highly specialized B2B sites. Read more about Garrett